From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.

The information is only something worth if it can be used. Flame and Stuxnet, both NSA products but sure there are many more, where using plenty Windows zero-day exploits for years. Now we know the story behind.

You don't see the problem with deliberately delaying fixing security issues with a very widely-used OS? "

How does advanced notification equate to delaying fixing? [/q]

In the same way that "trolling" equates to expressing any strong opinion, or in the same way that "patent trolling" equates to any litigation related to patents, or in the same way that "shill" equates to making any statement in defense of an unpopular company, etc etc etc....

This is what online debate has become: the dilution of the meaning of well-defined terms, due to deliberate "linguistic escalation." Someone calls you a fanboy? Then you call them a troll... then they retaliate by calling you a a shill, so you call them an astroturfer, ad infinitum.

The object is to find the most damning label you can think of, and to hell with accuracy!